Sharing stories: After Dobbs, a Pennsylvania pediatrician couldn’t remain silent

Dr. Anusha Viswanathan, a Bucks County pediatrician with a specialty in infectious diseases, had an abortion 10 years ago. She says she kept the details of that day just between family and friends — that is, until it was leaked that the Supreme Court would likely reverse Roe v. Wade, and she felt compelled to speak out.  

Viswanathan and her husband were doing their medical fellowship training in Pittsburgh in 2015 when they made the decision to start a family. She was 32 years old and became pregnant as soon as they started trying. But her initial first-trimester blood tests “were all off,” she told the Pennsylvania Independent. They came back showing heightened chances of chromosomal abnormalities that often result in miscarriage, birth defects, physical and intellectual disabilities, and a shortened lifespan.

“I was just like, how could even this be possible?” Viswanatan said she asked herself. “How could everything be wrong? Which is why we thought it was just a fluke.” 

At her 20-week ultrasound, Viswanathan learned that her fetus was what she called “pathologically growth-restricted,” far smaller than it should have been for its gestational age, and was not going to survive. After more tests and scans, Viswanathan made the difficult decision to have an abortion. 

Viswanathan said she chose to have a dilation and evacuation (D&E), a surgical procedure to remove the uterine tissue, something that is often offered in the second trimester of pregnancy. She said her experience was the “most empathetic delivery of care in horrifying circumstances.” 

Today, Viswanathan has two children, an 8-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. She says that for several years, she chose not to look at all of the ways abortion access was being eroded – even before the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe. 

“Then the Dobbs leak was impossible to ignore. … I just felt like all these opportunities — that maybe me or — more people like me — we should have done something, and then we did nothing, and now, you know, people are going to suffer,” Viswanathan said. “I’m a doctor, so I knew all of the downstream consequences. I was well aware. It was awareness crashing on top of you, and all the regret that you felt for not doing something.” 

Viswanathan said sharing her story gives her agency and meaning for the pregnancy she lost. But she’s also angry about all that’s happened since the fall of Roe. 

She mentioned Dr. Savita Halappandavar, who died in 2021 in Ireland of septicemia after she was denied an abortion while having a miscarriage under the Irish Constitution’s ban on the procedure. Her death provided momentum to a movement that resulted in the country voting in 2018 to repeal the amendment. 

“I think about Ireland and how one tragedy reshaped their nation and their national laws,” Viswanathan said. “And not to say it’s perfect, but one immigrant, brown woman, Indian origin, she changed the law, her death. How many deaths and mortality events have we had? How many do we need? I get so angry. … Why did that happen in Ireland, and why isn’t it happening here?”